Hello Stranger

I've become a bit of a stranger around here because life has been crazy! Daniel and I have been dealing with moving to a new home, buying a car (and getting new tires!), and on my part, lots of midterms. I just finished my last "midterm" and already have three tests piling up for next week. We don't have internet at our home yet, so it makes blogging a little tough. Such is life, I suppose! 

As far as our new home, it is now filled with furniture and decorated. I think it looks really homey and awesome. However, we are having some problems with our neighbors and with parking, so please pray that we will get it all worked out. We had our first guest stay with us last week and we had a little apartment-warming dinner on Sunday. I fixed these AWESOME Hawaiian sliders, which are super easy and tasty. I would highly recommend them. 

Not much else is happening around here (we hardly have time for the stuff we already do). We are heading to a youth group weekend for a "country" weekend. I'm not much of a country girl (besides music), but it should be fun. I'm looking forward to not studying much!

In other news, having a brother who works at Starbucks is pretty awesome. If you know me at all, you'll know I'm obsessed with Lime Refreshers. Well, Justin brought me a full box of lime refresher concentrate that they use in the store. Whoo hoo! 

I've been struggling to stay positive lately so I'd like to leave you with one last thought, a beautiful quote from Corrie ten Boom. She is definitely a hero of mine. 

via

Happy Friday, friends. Hope your weekend is full of joy. 

Looking in the Wrong Place

It's been a long and busy week, but a great week. I'm excited to share with you all that is going on, but until then, I thought I'd share something that's been on my heart again. I hope it speaks to you and reminds you that you always have somewhere to turn.



One of the Bible characters that resonates most deeply with me is Leah. I often wonder what it would be like to be Leah. Leah, who longed so desperately to be loved by Jacob. Leah, who couldn't measure up to the beauty of her sister. Leah, who was cruelly given by her father to a man who didn't love her. Leah, whose husband passionately loved her younger sister.

Poor, poor Leah.

Leah was looking for love, but she wasn't looking in the right place. In the account in Genesis 29, it says that the Lord SAW that she was not loved and gave her four children. The God of all the universe looked down at Leah and saw her.  After the birth of her first son, Leah thinks, Surely my husband will love me now. Again, after the birth of the third, Leah thinks finally, finally, Jacob will love her.  But alas, Leah is still searching for love in the wrong place.

It isn't until her fourth son, Judah, that Leah realizes that she is looking for the wrong love: This time, I will praise the Lord, she says. And finally, she gets it. Jacob might not love her (yet) but God did.  Finally, finally, she can be full. 

However, there is a happy ending. I think, as evidenced by the fact that Jacob was buried beside Leah and not Rachel, that Jacob finally learned to love Leah. Maybe not because of her beauty and charm, but because she had become full of the Lord.  In that place where the godly couples Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Rebekah were buried, so Jacob chose to be buried beside Leah.

As humans, we look for love. We desire to be filled, to be whole. I think God made us like that to learn to yearn for Him. Only the love of our Father can truly fill us and make us whole. Only when we are first filled with God can we truly accept and receive love from others. For years, we may be searching for "The One," but there is only One who makes us complete. So if you are desperately desiring to be loved, know that that love can be found. It's not in the man of your dreams, it's in the arms of your Father in Heaven. He sees your heart, just as He saw Leah's.

Run to Him. 

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:9-16

Originally posted 5/27/14.

Be Ready

I don't know what your spiritual beliefs are, but I look forward to the return of Christ to set up the Kingdom of God! We don't know when he will come, but the state of world events seem to suggest that it may be soon. The evil in the world certainly needs the peace of God. So whether it is tomorrow or in a hundred years, it doesn't matter. We need to be ready!

Hopefully you will be perfect when Jesus comes back so that he will accept you.

Just kidding. I'm not close to perfect and I never will be this side of the Kingdom. I'm pretty sure you aren't either. The thing is, we can't let that be an excuse. We can't make ourselves perfect but if we could, we wouldn't need God. But we also can't give up and say, Well, I'm hopeless. I'll never be any better so why bother?

It reminds me of the story told in Luke 7. Jesus is at the home of a prominent Jew for a dinner party. A woman who was a prostitute finds out that Jesus is there and she comes in, weeping with the burden of her past. She anoints Jesus' feet and wipes them with her hair. She knows too well that she is a sinner, but she also knows that she need only come to Jesus. We should be like her. She might have thought she was too bad to be forgiven, but she didn't. Or like the Pharisee, we might think we are doing pretty well. Neither attitude will serve us.

Being ready means just that... at any moment we are ready to serve God. It doesn't mean you are perfect but it most certainly means you have to do your best. We show God's love in every way that we can. Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Along the way, no doubt we will stumble. But how much better to stumble when Jesus is alongside you, ready to pick you up?

We need not be perfect, we need only a perfect Savior! 

We're Moving!

We are moving! Ever since we've been married, we've lived with my family and only had one car. I had a long drive to school. It's all changing so fast! Just last week, we applied for an apartment close to school and we can move in this weekend.

How do I feel? Overwhelmed. It's very bittersweet. Emphasis on bitter (ok, not really-- there's a lot of sweet too). I'm thankful that Daniel and I will be having our own place and that I won't have to drive so far to school. At the same time, it's so sad to me to not live with my family. I have lived in that house for almost 20 years! It's my home. But apparently you can't live with your parents forever. #biggirlpants

So I'm just trying to remember that I will still be able to visit my family anytime. And hopefully our new apartment will become a home, the Ferrie home. Here's to all that lies ahead!

Here's some words I wrote last year, just before I married Daniel. The words still ring just as true today.

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Cabin where we were married-- photo by Lis Dondero

What Does Home Mean To Me? Good Question.

It's A Safe Haven. It's A Place To Find Comfort. It's A Place To Laugh. It's A Place To Rest When You Are Down. It's A Place Where People Support You No Matter How Stupid You Have Been Or Are Being. It's A Place Where God Is At The Center. It's A Place Where You Can Be Yourself. 

A Place Of Love. A Place Of Inside Jokes. A Place Of Delicious Food And Lunches Packed For Your School Day. A Place To Cheer For Your Sports Teams. A Place To Play Music And Sing Hymns. A Place Of Spontaneity. A Place Where Your Family Makes You Play Board Games Even When You Don't Want To. 

Home Is A Place Of Midnight Snacks And Halloween Parties In The Garage And New Year's Buffets. Home Is Going To All Three Of Your Brother's Basketball Games On Saturdays And Your Sister's Dance Performances.  Home Is Being There For Each Other No Matter What.  Home Is Family.

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Happy October

Happy October! Normally, I'm thrilled when it is the fall... but honestly, this year I feel like I haven't had enough summer yet. Oh well, bring on the fall weather! I posted here about my goals for September, which I think I did really well! (: (: Here's what I did-- did you accomplish your goals for September?

1. Listen to a Bible class on the way to school every morning. 

Yeah! I did and I've really been enjoying it. Right now I am listening to classes on Ezra/Nehemiah/Esther; basically the period of the exiles returning. They've been really interesting and helping me to figure out the timing, which can be confusing!

2. Study while I'm ahead. 

So far, so good! Although I could do better, I think I'm staying up with school pretty well for now. It's been nice to not FREAK OUT about tests, so I'm going to try hard to keep it up (; I had three tests this week (well two so far, one today). Ack!

3. Have a weekly date night and meet up with my friends at least once a week. 

Did it! Daniel and I have been having weekly dates, which is actually easy to do because we follow the "love calendar" from Dating Divas. I've also met up with friends at least once a week, and sometimes more. 

Yeah! September was a good month! Also, it's hard to believe it has already been three months, but it has been three months since I posted the "quarterly goals" here. Daniel and I are updating/reflecting on our progress over the last three months. If you'd like to join along, here is the document. Or, if you want it to look better than mine-- make your own! 

Quarterly Self Analysis 

Have a wonderful weekend!